Mathematics: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
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Line 31: Before the [[Renaissance]], mathematics was divided into two main areas: [[arithmetic]], regarding the manipulation of numbers, and [[geometry]], regarding the study of shapes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bell |first=E. T. |author-link=Eric Temple Bell |year=1945 |orig-date=1940 |chapter=General Prospectus |title=The Development of Mathematics |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-486-27239-9 |lccn=45010599 |oclc=523284 |page=3 |publisher=Dover Publications |quote=... mathematics has come down to the present by the two main streams of number and form. The first carried along arithmetic and algebra, the second, geometry.}}</ref> Some types of [[pseudoscience]], such as [[numerology]] and [[astrology]], were not then clearly distinguished from mathematics.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tiwari |first=Sarju |year=1992 |chapter=A Mirror of Civilization |title=Mathematics in History, Culture, Philosophy, and Science |edition=1st |page=27 |publisher=Mittal Publications |publication-place=New Delhi, India |isbn=978-81-7099-404-6 |lccn=92909575 |oclc=28115124 |quote=It is unfortunate that two curses of mathematics--Numerology and Astrology were also born with it and have been more acceptable to the masses than mathematics itself.}}</ref> During the Renaissance, two more areas appeared. [[Mathematical notation]] led to [[algebra]] which, roughly speaking, consists of the study and the manipulation of [[formula]]s. [[Calculus]], consisting of the two subfields ''[[differential calculus]]'' and ''[[integral calculus]]'', is the study of [[continuous functions]], which model the typically [[Nonlinear system|nonlinear relationships]] between varying quantities, as represented by [[variable (mathematics)|variables]]. This division into four main areas{{ At the end of the 19th century, the [[foundational crisis in mathematics]] and the resulting systematization of the [[axiomatic method]] led to an explosion of new areas of mathematics.<ref name=Warner_2013>{{cite web |last=Warner |first=Evan |title=Splash Talk: The Foundational Crisis of Mathematics |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |url=https://www.math.columbia.edu/~warner/notes/SplashTalk.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322165544/https://www.math.columbia.edu/~warner/notes/SplashTalk.pdf |archive-date=March 22, 2023 |access-date=February 3, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Kleiner_1991" /> The 2020 [[Mathematics Subject Classification]] contains no less than {{em|sixty-three}} first-level areas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dunne |first1=Edward |last2=Hulek |first2=Klaus |author2-link=Klaus Hulek |date=March 2020 |title=Mathematics Subject Classification 2020 |journal=Notices of the American Mathematical Society |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=410–411 |doi=10.1090/noti2052 |doi-access=free |issn=0002-9920 |eissn=1088-9477 |lccn=sf77000404 |oclc=1480366 |url=https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202003/rnoti-p410.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803203928/https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202003/rnoti-p410.pdf |archive-date=August 3, 2021 |access-date=February 3, 2024 |quote=The new MSC contains 63 two-digit classifications, 529 three-digit classifications, and 6,006 five-digit classifications.}}</ref> Some of these areas correspond to the older division, as is true regarding [[number theory]] (the modern name for [[higher arithmetic]]) and geometry. Several other first-level areas have "geometry" in their names or are otherwise commonly considered part of geometry. Algebra and calculus do not appear as first-level areas but are respectively split into several first-level areas. Other first-level areas emerged during the 20th century or had not previously been considered as mathematics, such as [[mathematical logic]] and [[foundations of mathematics|foundations]].<ref name=MSC>{{cite web |url=https://zbmath.org/static/msc2020.pdf |title=MSC2020-Mathematics Subject Classification System |website=zbMath |publisher=Associate Editors of Mathematical Reviews and zbMATH |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240102023805/https://zbmath.org/static/msc2020.pdf |archive-date=January 2, 2024 |access-date=February 3, 2024}}</ref> Line 201: | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite conference | title=Grand Challenges, High Performance Computing, and Computational Science | last1=Johnson | first1=Gary M. | last2=Cavallini | first2=John S. | conference=Singapore Supercomputing Conference'90: Supercomputing For Strategic Advantage | date=September 1991 | page=28 |lccn=91018998 |publisher=World Scientific | editor1-first=Kang Hoh | editor1-last=Phua | editor2-first=Kia Fock | editor2-last=Loe | url={{GBurl|id=jYNIDwAAQBAJ|p=28}} | access-date=November 13, 2022 }}</ref> [[Numerical analysis]] studies methods for problems in [[analysis (mathematics)|analysis]] using [[functional analysis]] and [[approximation theory]]; numerical analysis broadly includes the study of [[approximation]] and [[discretization]] with special focus on [[rounding error]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Trefethen |first=Lloyd N. |author-link=Lloyd N. Trefethen |editor1-last=Gowers |editor1-first=Timothy |editor1-link=Timothy Gowers |editor2-last=Barrow-Green |editor2-first=June |editor2-link=June Barrow-Green |editor3-last=Leader |editor3-first=Imre |editor3-link=Imre Leader |year=2008 |chapter=Numerical Analysis |pages=604–615 |title=The Princeton Companion to Mathematics |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-11880-2 |lccn=2008020450 |mr=2467561 |oclc=227205932 |url=http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/trefethen/NAessay.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307054158/http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/trefethen/NAessay.pdf |archive-date=March 7, 2023 |access-date=February 15, 2024}}</ref> Numerical analysis and, more broadly, scientific computing also study non-analytic topics of mathematical science, especially algorithmic-[[numerical linear algebra|matrix]]-and-[[graph theory]]. Other areas of computational mathematics include [[computer algebra]] and [[symbolic computation]]. == History == {{Main|History of mathematics}} Line 265 ⟶ 266: | volume=56 | issue=1 | date=January 1949 | pages=35–56 | doi=10.2307/2304570 | jstor=2304570 }}</ref> In the early 20th century, [[Kurt Gödel]] transformed mathematics by publishing [[Gödel's incompleteness theorems|his incompleteness theorems]], which show in part that any consistent axiomatic system{{emdash}}if powerful enough to describe arithmetic{{emdash}}will contain true propositions that cannot be proved.<ref name=Raatikainen_2005 /> Mathematics has since been greatly extended, and there has been a fruitful interaction between mathematics and [[science]], to the benefit of both. Mathematical discoveries continue to be made to this very day. According to Mikhail B. Sevryuk, in the January 2006 issue of the ''[[Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society]]'', "The number of papers and books included in the ''[[Mathematical Reviews]]'' database since 1940 (the first year of operation of MR) is now more than 1.9 million, and more than 75 thousand items are added to the database each year. The overwhelming majority of works in this ocean contain new mathematical theorems and their proofs."{{sfn|Sevryuk|2006|pp=101–109}} Line 577 ⟶ 578: Mathematization of the social sciences is not without risk. In the controversial book ''[[Fashionable Nonsense]]'' (1997), [[Alan Sokal|Sokal]] and [[Jean Bricmont|Bricmont]] denounced the unfounded or abusive use of scientific terminology, particularly from mathematics or physics, in the social sciences.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sokal|first=Alan|url=https://archive.org/details/fashionablenonse00soka|title=Fashionable Nonsense|author2=Jean Bricmont|publisher=Picador|year=1998|isbn=978-0-312-19545-8|location=New York|oclc=39605994|author-link=Alan Sokal|author2-link=Jean Bricmont}}</ref> The study of [[complex systems]] (evolution of unemployment, business capital, demographic evolution of a population, etc.) uses mathematical knowledge. However, the choice of counting criteria, particularly for unemployment, or of models, can be subject to controversy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.factcheck.org/2023/01/bidens-misleading-unemployment-statistic/|title=Biden's Misleading Unemployment Statistic – FactCheck.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2010/modern-macroeconomic-models-as-tools-for-economic-policy|title=Modern Macroeconomic Models as Tools for Economic Policy | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis|website=www.minneapolisfed.org}}</ref>
== Philosophy == Line 891 ⟶ 889: {{Main|Popular mathematics}}Popular mathematics is the act of presenting mathematics without technical terms.<ref>{{Cite conference |last=Kissane |first=Barry |date=July 2009 |title=Popular mathematics |url=https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/6242/ |conference=22nd Biennial Conference of The Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers |location=Fremantle, Western Australia |publisher=Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers |pages=125–126 |access-date=December 29, 2022 |archive-date=March 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307054610/https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/6242/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Presenting mathematics may be hard since the general public suffers from [[mathematical anxiety]] and mathematical objects are highly abstract.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steen |first=L. A. |url={{GBurl|id=-d3TBwAAQBAJ|dq="popular mathematics" analogies|p=2}} |title=Mathematics Today Twelve Informal Essays |date=2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-4613-9435-8 |page=2 |language=en |access-date=January 3, 2023 }}</ref> However, popular mathematics writing can overcome this by using applications or cultural links.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pitici |first=Mircea |url={{GBurl|id=9nGQDQAAQBAJ|dq="popular mathematics" analogies|p=331}} |title=The Best Writing on Mathematics 2016 |date=2017|publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-8560-2 |language=en |access-date=January 3, 2023 }}</ref> Despite this, mathematics is rarely the topic of popularization in printed or televised media. === Awards and prize problems === {{Main category|Mathematics awards}} [[File:FieldsMedalFront.jpg|thumb|The front side of the [[Fields Medal]] with an illustration of the Greek [[polymath]] [[Archimedes]]]] |